The competition among the wireless carriers have heated up to the point where Sprint and Verizon are about to open their systems to make them really useful for their customers. (Finally!) Sprint and Verizon are working on ways for apps on high end phones to be able to locate the user. It is a year behind the iPhone and 3 months behind the Google phone, but better late than never. The real question is will developers put much effort into developing for these platforms? For example, Sprint is planning to open their systems using partners like uLocate and WaveMarket. These solutions have been out their for a while. What is the new incentive to create apps around these other companies’ apps? And what kind of hassel will developers have getting location info in this round about way?

Alltel is working with Trimble to create a new app that lets uses plan and keep track of their travels on their phones. They can also attach photos, audio and video from the trip to specific lat,lon coordinates. As opposed to several free Web 2.0 services that have these functions, this service cost $40/year. Some people might pay for it for the convienence, but only if they are unaware of the free options.

Verizon and Alltel had announced that Verizon will buy AllTel. Technically, they are being bought for $28.1 billion, which is slightly higher than what it cost a private equity group and Goldman Saks to take it private at $27.5 billion last year. It is really not as simple as a $0.6 billion profit. Verizon is paying $5.9 billion in cash including $1.4 billion in cash that is already in Alltel. The rest $22.2 billion is debt that Verizon has agreed to assume. But Verizon is sure to refinance the debt portion, so it is an even better deal for Verizon.

Verizon and Alltel are like mirror opposites when you look at their coverage maps. They are a perfect fit and use the same technology. It is a win-win for all, except maybe for Alltel’s customers. Their combined customer base of over 80 million customers will top AT&T’s 71 million to make Verizon the biggest US phone company.

Just remember that these huge US phone companies are still small compared to China Telecom with its 250 million subsribers. And China Telecom is dwarfed by China Mobile with its 400 million subscribers. For some perspective, the population of the US is just over 300 million men, women and children.